Episode 1. Where's God when People Turn Against Us
This is the first program in a new Series called “When Bad things happen to Good People”. When people turn against us it can be really tough. Where’s God in all of that? Join Berni on …
Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will promote you in due season.I believe that when we go through difficult times, God is giving us an opportunity to humble ourselves under his hand.
It’s just great that you can join us again for this weeks program of Christianityworks.Christianityworks is the Australasian ministry of Back to the Bible international.And we are passionate about sharing God’s word with you in a new relevant and exciting way.
I believe that as you listen to this message, your life will be changing by God’s love, god’s grace.And God’s power in Jesus Christ.
It’s really amazing how we can go through life and things are just going so wonderfully well, financially and emotionally, and spiritually and physically. And yet at other times one or more of those elements of our lives can take a rapid and unexpected turn for the worse.
Or something that was once a blessing, we wake up one day, and it’s just gone cold.It becomes mundane, or even a source of frustration.There are all sorts of things, all sorts of areas in our lives where these sorts of things happen.Maybe once we were married with children and now we are on our own.Or desperately want a partner and we can’t find one.Or someone is in a marriage and it’s driving them crazy.Or maybe our health has been fine and all of a sudden we have a health scare.All of a sudden we get diagnosed with something we didn’t expect.Some people lose their jobs.
Some people are in a job and they are just sick and tired of it.Maybe someone that you trust has stabbed you in the back.Maybe you were part of a church that seem to be exciting back then but now, I don’t know.
The list is endless.And it nags away at you, it eats away at you.The reality is that sometimes bad things happen to good people.And what often happens is that we end up feeling like a caged animal.As though we are trapped by our circumstances, like there is no out.Have you ever felt that?
We want to run somewhere, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to run.Or you are just not sure what direction to turn in.Sometimes, sometimes we have contributed to the situation ourselves.Other times things happen completely out of our control.Whatever, you just feel trapped.No matter what anybody does.No matter what anybody says, that one thing that’s gone wrong ends up dominating our lives.
The joy of the Lord seems to be just like a dim distant memory. And you think to yourself well what now.Today we are starting a new series called “Bad things happen to good people.”Because you know something, they do.Ever been there?Maybe you are there now.
So how do we deal with that?Does God have anything to say in the middle of all of that stuff that can be going on and just robbing us of he joy and the peace that Jesus died to give us? Does God have anything to say and to do in the middle of all of that?Today we are going to begin this series with the story of Joseph.
Maybe you saw the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Joseph and the technicoloured Dreamcoat.”Well this is the Joseph that the musical was about.If you happen to have a bible grab it.We are going to open it up at Genesis, right at the beginning of the old testament.Genesis chapter 37, and look at the story, not just of Joseph, but the story of God and Joseph.To me these stories about people in the bible, ordinary everyday people like you and me, are really important.Not in the sense that we look at Joseph, and say, “we should all be like Joseph.”Because there is one thing for certain, you’re not like Joseph and I’m not like Joseph.We are all different, we are all unique individuals and its this whole notion that we hold someone up and say, “here let’s be like Joseph…” well, that easy to say.But it is actually hard to do. But I think the story about Joseph that we are going to look at today is importantbecause it is a story not just about Joseph, it’s a story about what God did in Josephs life.
And when we look at that I think there are some lesson we can learn, some overlaps into our lives, our own situations.That can help us in some of the difficult times in life.God’s wisdom, God’s insight, God’s hope into our life.Lets just pray for a minute, “Father, as we open your Word.As we look at the Bible, as we look at the story of Joseph, we just pray that you will speak into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.Father we just ask that as we look at the story of Joseph we see Your grace, Your glory, and your love and your faithfulness in the middle of that story.And Father we pray that we would not only see it in Joseph’s story, but that we would see it in our own lives.Lord we just pray that in the name of Jesus. Amen.”
Well, lets have a look at Josephs story…let’s just begin and read the first few verses of Chapter 37 of the book of Genesis.Ok, it was written a few thousand years ago, but this story is a great story.Jacob who was Josephs dad, settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.This is the story of the family of Jacob, “Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”
So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?”
And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”
So here we have this young Joseph, the name literally means, “The Lord has given me a son in my old age.”And Joseph was youngest of all the brothers and Jacob who is also called Israel, his dad, love Joseph more than all the other brothers.He was the favorite because he was the little one that was born in dads old age.And Jacob was the son of Isaac.Isaac was the son of Abraham, and here we are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph.God is doing an amazing thing.If you know the story.God first spoke to Abraham and promised him this land of Canaan, he did some amazing things in bringing Isaac into the world when Abraham was over 100.And then Jacob was born.And now Jacob has had what will ultimately be 12 sons.Who will be the heads of the tribes of Israel.And here is young Joseph.The youngest the favorite.His dad made him a long coat, the techicoloured dream coat as the musical called it.And his brothers just hated him.I mean, dad played favorites.Its not a good thing for fathers to play favorites.At least if they love one child different to another child, they need to keep it to themselves.And treat them equally.But here, Josephs dad didn’t. And God gave Joseph this dream that somehow was interpreted by people that Joseph would rise up above his parents, that Joseph would rise up above his brothers, that they would all bow down to him.
Is the dream his fault?Well, no. Is the coat his fault? Not at all.Is his fathers favoritism his fault?That’s not his fault.Maybe you could argue that Joseph was just a little immature in sharing those dreams and those stories with his brothers.He should have known that his brothers didn’t really like him anyway because he was dads favorite.But to share it, well, that was immaturity.But look at what happened next.
The brothers ganged up on him, they hated him so much, that they actually plotted to kill him.Let pick it up in chapter 37, verse 12, “Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”
So he said to him, “Here I am.”
Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.
Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?”
So he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.”
And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”
But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.
So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.
And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore his clothes. And he returned to his brothers and said, “The lad is no more; and I, where shall I go?”
So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?”
And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his clothes..”
Okay so Joseph was a bit immature in telling the story, but did he deserve all of that.Did he deserve to be sold into slavery? I don’t think so.Here he is, he is dads favorite.Dad treats him like the best.Because he is the youngest.And dad makes him this coat that obviously had some significance.And he has this dream from God.And he is betrayed by his brothers, he is sold for 20 shekels of silver.And dragged down to Egypt on the end of a rope.And ultimately we see a little later, we are not going to read the whole story, we see a little later he is sold at the slave market to a man called Potiphar, which means “dedicated to Ra” the sun God.So here is Potiphar who is a pagan, he is the chief of police. He is the chief executioner, his name itself is an offence to a Jew, because remember, Joseph and his family worship God.
And so what a fall.What a fall.From being dads favorite and being on top of the pile, to having your brothers turn against you.Plot to murder you.And then sell you into slavery, what, through circumstances and a bit of immaturity.
My experience is that other people around us rarely understand the promises God places in our hearts.You know here is this Joseph with the technicolour dream coat.He is set apart by his father, he is different, he is unique.He is not like his brothers and sisters.And then when God gives him a dream, when God gives us dreams, opposition is sure to follow.
The very people sometimes.That should be our most trusted friends.End up being our enemies.It can be hard, but it’s true.Have you experienced that?
God gives you a sense of something for your future. That God give you a sense of calling a sense of destiny.And you try and share that with other people around.And they don’t always get it.And sometimes people think, “well, if you are thinking that big, then if you are dreaming that big, you are arrogant.You must selfish if you are thinking that big.You think you are better than us.”Just like Joseph and his brothers.
The issue isn’t that God gives us a dream.The issue isn’t that people come against us when they should be supporting us.The $64 question is, “how do we respond?”What do we do with that? Well lets have a look at how Joseph responds.Again if you have your bible, flick over a page.To chapter 39,beginning at verse 1.“1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate.”This is a most profound passage.
Because is says that the Lord was with Joseph.And he prospered everything that Joseph touched, was successful.Let’s put ourselves in Josephs shoes for a minute.How do you think Joseph felt about being a slave to Potiphar?A killer, a chief of police, an Egyptian.Hurt, angry, betrayed, horrified?I think all of the above.And what a shocking outcome? And all because of his brothers.The people that should have loved him, the people that should have been close to him.The were the ones that betrayed him into this awful situation.But it is clear from what we just read there that this did not translate into a bad attitude.Because Potiphar made him the head of his household.If Potiphar had purchased this slave Joseph, and Joseph had been a trouble maker, and Joseph had rebelled, Joseph probably would have been beaten and executed.
But instead he ends up being the head of the household of pharaoh’s chief of police.When bad things happen to us, when life is unfair.Our most common response is to behave badly.Isn’t it?That’s what we want to do, we want to lash out, we want to blame someone.We want to criticize people.We want to be obstinate.We want to say, “I am not going to do this”. We rant and rave at the world. We sulk, we do all sorts of things.
When life is unfair to us we want to be unfair back to life.But it is clear that Joseph didn’t make that choice.The complete opposite.He used his gifts and talents.For the benefit of his master. He worked diligently, despite his circumstances, despite the hurt, humiliation.The loss, the pain.Then it says, “and God blessed him.”But it got even worse than this.It is one thing to be a slave and then to be set up as Potiphars head of household.But listen to what happens next. This would have been like the last nail in the coffin probably for you and me.Picking it up in verse s6 of chapter 39, “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
7 And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.”
8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
10 So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.
11 But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. 13 And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, 14 that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.”
16 So she kept his garment with her until his master came home. 17 Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, “The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me; 18 so it happened, as I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside.”
19 So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, “Your servant did to me after this manner,” that his anger was aroused. 20 Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison.”
So his brothers turn against him, he ends up a slave.He ends up in Potiphars house.Things are looking just looking better for him, and all of a sudden, he gets accused of something he never did.And this young Joseph ends up in jail.Pretty tough life isn’t it.One step forward, two steps back.What was Josephs reaction to the temptation.Look at it in verse 9 of chapter 39, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” in the midst of all the idolatry in Egypt, the slavery, he clings to his God.
And it lands him in jail.At this point, chances are that you and I start to feel a little bit of doubt about God.Is it worth it?Does he care?Did he really call me to be here?“That is it, I have had enough”.What about Joseph how did he react?Well, lets have a look, “And he was there in the prison. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.” Now that sounds familiar doesn’t it.
Even in jail, a slave in jail.With no hope of release, no hope of a future.No hope of ever seeing his father or his mother or his brothers again.Joseph just kinda did what Joseph does.Which is to make friends with people and all of a sudden to work for them and to build influence with them and to do good things.Joseph knew something that the Psalmist, many, many years later, found some beautiful words for.When Psalm 139, when he wrote, “Where can I go from your Spirit.Where can I flee from your presence o God.If I ascend into heaven you are there.If I make my bed in the depths in you are there.If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there you hand shall lead me. And your right hand shall hold me fast” We believe that stuff when life is going well.But the moment things turn against us, what do we believe then?
If we could learn one thing from the story of Joseph, its this…no matter how bad life got, he believed.Now he knew that God was there and he acted accordingly.No matter what the people around him were doing.Do you get it?
When we want to behave badly.Because other people have behaved badly to us.God’s calling us.To behave as though God is in the place.“Oh I have tried that it doesn’t work”, well, lets flick on a little bit to chapter 41 of Genesis.
“Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river. 2 Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. 3 Then behold, seven other cows came up…” and so on and so forth.Two years later, so Joseph is rotting in a prison for two years.And one day God does something.Pharaoh has a dream.About these cows coming up the Nile river and he doesn’t know what the dream is about.And so he goes to his soothsayers and says, “what does this dream mean?” and they say, “Well we don’t know”.And ultimately after a time, word finally gets to pharaoh, “there seems to be this really clever guy in jail who knows how to interpret dreams.”Two years, being trapped by circumstances that was so unfair, as to be beyond words.What did Joseph do?When God presented him with opportunity he used his gifts to bless other people.Despite his circumstances, despite how he felt.He blessed the warden, and he blessed two other men in jail with him.The former cup bearer and baker of pharaoh.It was ultimately the cup bearer who told pharaoh about this Joseph who was rotting in prison who could interpret dreams.
And God takes those situations that are so unjust and takes them, and uses them to bless Joseph.You see the spiritual principle emerging out of this?God has taken the trouble to preserve it up to 4,000 years, to bring it to you and to me today.God wants to bless us.And even when bad things happen to good people, God still wants to bless us.Now the story goes on to ultimately pharaoh calls Joseph before him.And Joseph interprets the dream correctly.He says, “look pharaoh, what this means, the seven lean cows are a period of famine.The seven fat cows are a period of great abundance.Now what’s going to happen in Egypt is that there is going to be seven years of plenty.And then there are going to be seven years of famine.And you need to put aside food during the plenty so you can feed the people during the famine.”
Pharaoh was so impressed by this that he takes Joseph, and makes him prime minister of Egypt.He sets Joseph over the whole country.With the task of administering the food during the time of the plenty.So that enough would be stored away for the huge time of famine.And Joseph does that, Joseph does it really, really well.You see it happened in Potiphars house.Joseph behaved well. He clearly had some administrative skills.It happens again in prison.He behaved well and he was put in charge of the prison.It happens again in pharaohs royal palace.And Joseph is promoted from slave, into prime minister.God is into accelerated promotion.
In 1 Peter Chapter 5 and verse 6, “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.And he will promote you in due season.”
“Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.And he will promote you in due season.”See the promotion is linked to the humbling.The humbling no matter what the circumstance are.No matter how right or wrong they seem.No matter how well they suit you or me.God just wants us to keep going.And doing good and blessing other people.
And ultimately and we haven’t got time to go through the whole story today,Joseph is reunited with his father and his brothers.Because during the time of famine they come down and they are looking for food.And ultimately they recognise who this man is.It is the brother whom they had left and they sold into slavery.
Now listen to me, from the time that this young man had a dream.To the time that it was fulfilled, was a long time.Joseph was 17 when he had the dream.He was 30 when he became prime minister of Egypt.There is another 7 years of prosperity, and some time into the famine, his brothers came down, lets say 2 or 3 years.So from the time of the dream to the time of it’s fulfillment was 22 or 23 years.And when his brothers came down from Canaan to Egypt, they literally bowed down to the prime minister even when they didn’t know it was Joseph.
And so the dream of all those sheafs bowing down to his sheaf was fulfilled.22 or 23 years later.Feels like a long time for us.And in that time he has been sold into slavery, he has been in prison, he has been accused of things he didn’t do.He has been put in front of pharaoh to interpret a dream, that would have been scary for a Hebrew slave.And ultimately God blesses him.
There is a spiritual principle in all of this, that is best summed up in the new testament.If you again have a bible, flick over to Galatians, chapter 6, verse 7, “7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature[a]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
I believe that when we go through difficult times, like Joseph, God is giving us an opportunity to humble ourselves underneath His mighty hand.To not give up.To keep doing good, to keep plugging away.Just using the gifts that we have.Just using the abilities that we have.To do the things that we can do.And all the time God is in that place.
All the time God wants to bless us.
All the time God is waiting to promote us.
Bad things happen to good people.But God is in that place.
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